Sermon
A Biblical Lesson In Christian Stewardship
September 14, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'd like for you to join with me for our lesson today in the gospel of Luke; third gospel in the New Testament. And we're going today begin our lesson on stewardship with what I think is one of the most unique parables Jesus ever told. It's unique because in our culture it's almost impossible for us to understand what he was talking about. So let me read the story and then we'll go back and learn what he was saying. Luke's gospel chapter 16 beginning to read at verse 1.

He also said to His disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods." Now in ancient times, and possibly even true in our day, wealthy people assigned persons responsible for handling their wealth, that is known as a steward. And it says of this steward that his boss called him in and said, I hear something...I hear you're wasting. And in the Greek that means you're taking off the top and putting it in your pocket.

You're wasting my goods; and so he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be a steward." In other words, I'm giving you seven days to clear up the books and bring them into me audited and then your employment is finished.

Then the steward said within himself, "What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "A hundred measures of oil." So he said to him, "Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" So he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And he said to him, "Take your bill, and write eighty."

So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

An interesting story. Let's take our notes and let's bypass the first 4 pages and go to page 5, because I think this is a very, very interesting and important explanation. It's a story that's hard for us to see how the master could commend his steward for what we think was a dishonest act. Right?

At the top of page 5 our lesson today commenced with the words of Christ on the subject of Christian stewardship as it relates to our material possessions. The verses that proceed the ones we selected tell the story of a man who was losing his position as a steward due to his mismanagement. Now when he's being released, he arranges to adjust some of the billings so that he might have favor with those who benefited from his unjust action when, he himself, was without employment. We say it was dishonest...but listen to the words of Christ: "So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light."

Now Jesus implies...if only the Christians were as eager and as ingenious in their attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world is in his attempt to attain money and comfort, he would be a much better man. If only men would give as much attention to the things which concern their souls as they do to the things which concern their business, they would be much better men. Jesus said: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and were thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also."

Now let's come back, for a moment, and consider the action of this unjust steward. Jews were forbidden to take interest from fellow-Jews when they lent them money. The ancient law of God was, you do not charge your brother interest. That was the ancient law that governed the relationship between the Jewish people. Those who wished to make money from loans evaded this by reasoning that the law was concerned to prohibit the exploitation of the poor. It was not meant to forbid innocent transactions that were mutually beneficial and where the payment of interest amounted to the sharing of the profits. If a man had even a little of a given commodity he was not destitute and thus lending to him was not exploitation.

Now here's the way they reasoned: What God must have really meant is that we don't charge a poor brother interest. But if somebody has a little bit he's not really poor, so we can charge him interest. That was their reasoning. As almost everyone had a little oil and had a little wheat the way was open for widespread use of legal fiction. Whatever was borrowed was given a value in oil or wheat (say, eighty measure of wheat), the interest added on (say, twenty measures), was the bond or the bill made out for the repayment of the total in terms of wheat or oil (in this case one hundred measures). Now this transaction was usurious, but the bill gave no indication of this. Now commonly these transactions were carried on by stewards, ostensibly without the owner's knowledge.

Pause -- let me illustrate: I am the steward and I work for very wealthy man, and Harold comes to my office and says, Mr. Sheley I need eighty bushels of wheat to carry me through the winter. And I say, that's agreed. It's out in the barn and you can go pick it up now, but when we make this bill in that you're not going to be paying me for some time, you understand there's interest? And so what I want to do is I'm going to write our bill, Harold, so it shows that you took 100 bushels out of the barn, although you only took eighty, but you agree that that's a valid billing. Now you see what he did -- what I did is I eliminated the possibility of being accused of charging interest because Harold has agreed that he's going to vouch for the fact that he got 100 measures of wheat.

Now here's what happens -- sometimes that was down in the knowledge of the master and they split, the steward split with the master whatever he got for the amount that he added on. But other times the steward did this without the knowledge -- it was his way of getting something under the table for his service.

Now let's go on with our notes. Understood in this way, the parable presents us with a steward who, faced with the loss of employment, protected his future by calling in all the bonds or bills and getting the debtors to rewrite them so that they no longer carried interest. So here's what he's going to do. Harold, I want you come to my office this afternoon. I've invited the rest of the folks at a deal with. We're going to have a transaction. Now Harold, I want you to tear up that bill. We're going to rewrite it for eighty and you're going to sign it. But just remember Harold, you have twenty bushels that you've got to have some gratitude for. He puts the man in his debt.

He looked to their gratitude to express itself by their taking him into their homes. His action put the owner in a difficult position. He would have the greatest difficulty to establish his claims to the original amounts now that the first bills were destroyed. Now folks, that's the cooking of the books. Now in any case he could not repudiate the steward's action without convicting himself of taking usury. In other words, he's settling this thing, and if my master comes back and adds to that eighty then he's going to be guilty before everybody for charging interest, of usury.

So what does he do? It would be extremely difficult to obtain his legal rights and in the process he would convict himself of acting impiously. So he put the best face possible on the situation and commended the man. Thus he secured an undeserved reputation for piety. The steward was now conforming to the law of God and the owner was seen applauding it. Both were acting decisively in a difficult decision.

All right, here's the way it is: Harold has this bill now for eighty bushels. If the master says, but I know it's more. Then all those that are observing this are going to say, hey, he's adding to the bill and he's guilty of usury. But, on the other hand, the owner takes the position, he's really made me look good. Look at, Harold owed me one hundred and I crossed off twenty. So that makes him look pious, and that makes him look religious. So he's gained and he's not going to put that image of being generous aside, so he commends the steward -- he gets the reputation of being a generous master because he gave twenty bushels, and the steward is very smart because after the transaction is over he says, Harold, remember, how much you owe me. So the steward comes out and the master comes out. And that's why he's commended. That sounds a little difficult for us, but that's the way Jesus paints the picture.

I'm at the top of page 6. So the steward is now conforming to the law of God and the owner is seen applauding it. Both were acting decisively in a very difficult situation. Verse 9 says something very interesting: "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon that when you fail"...now remember when he's talking about mammon he's talking about money. Make friends for yourselves with unrighteous money that when you fail, they may receive you in an everlasting home.

Now the lesson in this verse is that material possessions should be used to cement the friendships wherein the real and permanent value of life lies. It was a Jewish belief that charity given to poor people would stand to a man's credit in the world to come. And a man's true wealth would consist not in what he kept, but in what he gives away. And that is what Paul meant when he quoted the passage from Psalm 112: "He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."

What Jesus is saying...The wise man is the man who makes his investments with his possessions where those possessions bring eternal results, and in that God promised very special blessings in giving to the needy, that's the best investment that you can make. And what is saying is you invest your possessions in that which rewards you eternally, and then when we are welcomed into God's presence you'll have an everlasting home. Now let's read on.

Paul writes to the Galatians: Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, and he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap life everlasting. What Paul is simply saying is if you live your life to please your flesh, you'll reap destruction. If you live your life to please God, he benefits you with everlasting blessing.

Now our text began with these words: "He who is faithful in a little thing is also faithful in much, and he who is dishonest in a little thing will be dishonest in much." A man's character, what Jesus is saying, is revealed not in the size, whether small or large -- is he's a dishonest person, he'll always be dishonest. It comes out in every expression of life. Now a man's way of fulfilling a small task is the best proof of his fitness or unfitness to be entrusted with a bigger task. That's clearly true in earthly things. No man will be advanced to higher office until he has given proof of his honesty and his ability in a smaller position. That's true, isn't it? We work ourselves up the ladder; we gain respect; we get knowledge; we get positioned in a higher position; that's the way the business world works.

But now Jesus extends this principle into eternity. He says: "Upon earth you are in charge of things which are not really yours. You cannot take them with you when you die. They are only lent to you. You are only a steward over them. They cannot, in the nature of things, be permanently yours." Pause. That's true. We came in naked folks, and we're going out naked. And no hearse ever had a U-Haul trailer on it.

A wealthy man died and his friends asked, how much did he leave? He left everything. We take nothing with us because everything we have is temporal. Right? On the other hand, in heaven you will get what is really and eternally yours. And what you get in heaven depends on how you use the things on earth. What you will be given as your very own depends on how you use the things which were only yours as a steward. Jesus makes it very clear that our eternal rewards will be premised upon our earthly faithfulness in stewardship. Stop.

That is a solemn thought. Ladies and gentlemen, when we become Christians everything is sacred. There is nothing that's secular. The hours that He gives to us are sacred. We redeem each moment to make it count for eternity. The gifts that He gives us, the talents that He gives us, they are very sacred. They come from God Almighty. He gives us air to breathe. He gives us the brains and the capacity, the health to perform our duties and fulfill the requirements of our profession. But when we see ourselves in the way God sees us, everything we have, all good things come from the Father of life. We're simply stewards. We're not owners.

I don't own today. I'm a steward of this day and I rose early this morning and made preparation to be with you, and my responsibility before Almighty God is to use every moment of this day with a sacred sense that it must count for eternity. Redeeming the time because each moment...when you say, I'm just killing time, you're killing an extremely precious commodity, because time is sacred. And what we have in life is very sacred. When we get home on the weekend and our check is there it would be wise of us as Christians just to put it on the table and sit down and say, God, there it is. It's my income for the week, but it's sacred to You. You gave me the strength to earn it. You gave me the job. You provided me the health. You gave me the mental capacities; all that I have God, and I want You to give me wisdom now to handle these funds in a sacred way so that they count for eternity. Now when you take and reason life as always sacred in every dimension, everything we have is sacred. And all the possessions are sacred.

And here's what Jesus is saying: we're going to be rewarded in heaven to the degree we've used are possessions here on earth with a sense of sacredness. Boy that's a solemn thought, isn't it? But as Christians, one of the first things I learned, my lesson in stewardship, is no longer is it mine, but He's given it to me to use for His glory; all of it -- time, talent, possessions. Lesson number one -- it all belongs to Him. Amen?

Now let's go to another part in our Bible. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Now here's the situation. The people down in Jerusalem are exceedingly poor and Paul is out journeying around the Gentile churches collecting an offering so he can take it back to Jerusalem. The year earlier the Corinthians got all excited and started their collection of their gift, but some how they lost their focus and Paul is writing this letter to remind them it's about time to take up the offering back to Jerusalem. And you better get your act together because you started this and many churches have followed you. Don't let us down.

Beginning at verse 1: Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. He's simply saying many of these churches I visited have been very, very poor churches, but even out of their poverty they've been generous. In fact, look at what he says: For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

Paul said we really wanted to say, no, you're too poor to give. But they insisted and they said, no, Paul we want to do this; don't turn us away. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. Not only did they have Paul's love and his admiration, but Paul had their gift that he was taking back to Jerusalem.

Now look at verse 7. This is an interesting one. But as you abound in everything--in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us--see that you abound in this grace also. Now let's stop there.

In his writings to the Corinthians he commends them for their high degree of spirituality, but he wants them to mature because there is some carnality in chapter 3 in that church. And Paul wants them not always to be babes but he wants them to grow up and mature and be solid, and valuable, and strong Christians -- mature Christians. So here's what he saying, spiritual growth must always be balanced. You're going to grow in faith, you're going to grow in the knowledge of God's word, you're going to grow in diligence, but make sure that within your growth you're including the grace of giving.

In other words God ties to spiritual growth the way we use our possessions. He's tied it very, very close. And ladies and gentlemen this is a fact, after 50 years of ministering I've learned one thing and watched the congregations, when a person becomes a Christian if they choose not to allow God to become a part of their possessions, they never grow and mature spiritually. Somehow God has uniquely tied our pocketbook to the matter of spiritual growth, because if God doesn't have your pocketbook, He doesn't have you. That's true.

So what Paul is saying, if you want to grow spiritually, if you want to grow in the knowledge of God and you want His blessings to be richly turned towards you, then grow not only in knowledge, not only in love, not only in diligence, but grow in the grace of generous giving. Balance it out and you'll find that God starts pouring upon you the windows of heaven -- out of the windows of heaven the blessings you cannot contain.

Now he says something else. Look at verse 8: "I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love" - Ah, giving proves the sincerity of love, because the very nature of love is to give.

I often tell you this, when I fell in love with my girlfriend 50 years ago, I thought, man, this is a great catch. And after a few weeks I decided I'm in love, and so I went to the florist and I said, give me all the red roses you've got in the house. And I think I had maybe six or seven dozen roses, so when I went to Vernita's front door here I've got all these flowers. And want I'm simply trying to say is, Vernita, all the flowers in town couldn't tell you how much I love you. I mean, when you're in love you go crazy men. Right? You know what I'm talking about.

So in my love for Vernita then one evening I said to her, Vernita, I like you. And then I had a long pause, and then I said, no, I don't like you, I love you and I want you to be my wife. So we went shopping, and I decided I'm going to get this gal a rock. Now it doesn't look like much today after 50 years, but 50 years ago when she put that ring on her finger everybody thought she was marrying a king. Because love has no dimensions. Love gives all and even beyond, and I spent the next number of months sacrificing my lunch to pay for that lovely rock -- but I was in love.

And throughout the years we have done something very unique; I've never been able to find one card that expresses myself on anniversary so I'll go to a card shop and...I like that it has a pretty picture on, and I get another one 'On our anniversary with love', this one says... And what I do is I find that one card doesn't say it all, so I find as many cards as I can. I mean, if you want to buy stock buy it in Hallmark folks. And when I find maybe 10-12, whatever it is, I take them to the counter. And the last time I did the lady said, how many wives do you have? And then what I do early in the morning before I leave the house, I put one card on the dresser, and another card in the bathroom, and one on the toilet seat, so every place she goes she's still reminded that I love her. Now ladies and gentlemen, that's true; you all relate to that, but it's true when we fall in love with Jesus. When you're in love with Jesus you don't have to talk about percentages, you want to give all that you possibly can just out of pure joy and pure love.

Paul says when it comes to giving that the Lord loves a cheerful giver. We don't give grudgingly. Love never gives grudgingly. Love is never stingy. Love is never selfish. Love is always generous, and you can tell how much you love Christ by how much you give Him. That's why I never preach percentages here. I believe in tithing, but I never preach percentages. Can you imagine me walking up to Vernita and saying, Vernita, I love you ten percent. That doesn't work. She's going to say, honey, what about the other 90? What I'm saying is you don't put percentages on love. And my prayer is that we have such a congregation so in love with Jesus there are no dimensions to the amount we give. We give just out of pure love, and say I love you Jesus. Amen?

One more lesson. Notice down in chapter 9 verse 6, there's another law of stewardship. The first law is this -- everything I have is His. The second law is this -- if I love Him, I'll just naturally be generous. And the third law is this - But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Now as you know, I have the joy of driving up to see my 90-year-old mother in Northern California about once a week. When I go up Highway 5 to Northern California, they have all these massive rice patties. And in the springtime as I drive along I notice that the seeding plane is crisscrossing back and forth across the field. I find that guy fascinating, the way he puts that plane between those fence posts just amazing me. So I stop my car and I watch this seeding plane, and boy he's not sparing any seed. Soon as he gets over that field he pulls those chutes and out come those seeds by the millions, and he's not really caring about whether he gets it all into one patty because even when I'm sitting on the side of the road some of it comes on my car. I mean, he's sowing bountifully because that farmer is expecting a great harvest. He doesn't go out there and just put a seed here and there and hope it's going to be a great harvest.

Now I drive up there at this time of the year and those rice patties are gorgeous, beautiful green and lush. And I'll tell you man, those farmers are going to get a great harvest of rice this year. But they sowed bountifully, and in the sowing bountifully they get a great harvest. That's true spiritually, ladies and gentlemen. If we sow love and kindness and our possessions in generous dimensions bountifully, God has promised that He will reward us bountifully.

You go to the Old Testament text and He says when we are faithful with our possessions in the giving to God, He will open up to windows of heaven and shower forth blessings upon you so much so you can't contain it, but 80% of most Christians don't believe that. Somehow that truth hasn't gotten across. You say, why eighty percent? Because the national average is that only 20 percent of Christians give generously to God. But it's a law that once we learn it, you'll regret all the years you lost in not doing it.

I had a policeman at my first service at 7 o'clock this morning and he's only been a new Christian for a short time, probably a couple of years, I mean, really devoted, and while we're walking down the mall together between services he said, you know Pastor, when I started coming here I'd squeeze out a little bit and give it to God and regret it. I thought that was a lot. He said, you know as I've grown to know God and enjoy Jesus as my Savior, I'll tell you something, I'm just giving and giving. And he said, I don't have anything less than when I wasn't giving anything. It's amazing to me. God has so blessed us. He talked about blessing -- not dollar bills folks. I'm not for this get rich kind of religion stuff, you know, give and God's obligated to give it back. None of that. But God does promise rewards, and in His rewards they come in all ways -- God's blessing upon the family, God's blessing upon the marriage, God's blessing upon the children and their education.

My father, as you know, had us five boys during the Depression. I was born in 1931 right in the heart of the Depression. My father was out of work for 5 years. And my father had to go from house to house to beg food for his boys. I know what it is to sit at a table without any food in the plates. I don't ask for any pity, but all I'm saying is I understand poverty. And my father got a job stacking lumber in a lumber company for 50 cents an hour, 10 hours a day, six days a week, so his check at the end of the week was $30. The cupboards are emptying, his boys don't have any shoes on their feet, but my daddy is now a Christian, and I can still see as a little boy, five years of age, he was paid in cash. And I watched him lay out that $30 on the table and he took three dollars and added a dime, and said I'm going down to the church and took it to the preacher.

I'll tell you, the blessings began to poor upon our family. Daddy raised five boys; we're all Christians, and married lovely Christian ladies. Nearly 30 children, and out of those now, seven are standing in pulpits this morning preaching the word of God. My daddy was rewarded by a family who loves Him, loves God. And when I say the blessings of God, ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking about not this idea of you put in 10 you get 100 back, I'm saying when you become generous with God, He begins to pour into your life blessings you never dreamed of onto your family, into your business, whatever it is. God is never going to be out given. Never! And when you learn this law that all that I have belongs to Him and out of a heart that's filled with love I'm going to be as generous as I can , and I'm going to sow as bountifully as I possibly can, I tell you you've opened your life open to one of the richest and the most exciting ways to live.

When we started our church I had to work 12 years at night stocking shelves down at Market and Duboce because we wanted to put everything that came into the church back into the church. And I remember times standing with my bills for the church there in the Daly City Post Office and saying, God, these bills are due and they need to be paid, and so I'm going to put them in the box in faith. And I would do that before I opened up the box to see how much was in the box that came in. And I remember one day putting in, I don't know how many hundreds of dollars, paying the bills so the church would always have the finest reputation in town; we pay our bills. And say, God, this is my obligation, I'm going to pay the bills to honor You. I opened up the big box where our mail came into, and opened up the envelopes, ladies and gentlemen, the same amount of money that had mailed out to pay the bills God had sent it in to cover the deposit. So I know God's faithful, and when you see that, I tell you, you grow in every dimension spiritually because in trust you see a God at work who really does want to bless your life if you'll just let Him. But you can keep the windows of heaven closed by keeping your pocketbook closed.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, Your word is so very clear. We've learned three simple lessons today; that all that we have belongs to You, and You're going to hold us accountable in eternity for how we handled the things of time. We've also learn today that love is always generous and if I have a tendency to be stingy and selfish, then there's something desperately wrong with my love, and that needs to be corrected. And thirdly we have learned that when we learn generosity and giving bountifully for the blessings of others, the harvest we enjoy is a bountiful harvest of blessing that flows from heaven. Now these three simple lessons may we learn them well; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you folks.